


Old Wounds

by fallingstarshere



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canonical Character Death, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, bro they're just being cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:08:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23101483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallingstarshere/pseuds/fallingstarshere
Summary: While Will and Nico clean out the infirmary in the Big House, Will comes across something that brings up some unpleasant memories.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace, Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 3
Kudos: 185





	Old Wounds

**Author's Note:**

> I was getting in my feelings about the Battle of Manhattan so this is a result of those emotions

Nico was helping Will clean out the infirmary's office—if you count sitting on the desk and talking to your boyfriend helping. Will appreciated Nico's presence as he rifled through the old papers shoved away in file cabinets. It was boring work, and he much preferred talking to Nico over talking to himself.

"I mean, it's not like we have to keep all of this in the office. We should move it to the basement," Will muttered to himself.

Nico pulled a bandaid from the glass jar on the desk and opened it, revealing a Thomas the tank engine pattern. Pulling his leg up onto the desk, he placed the bandaid on his knee, where his jeans were ripped just enough to show off the bandage perfectly.

"Those are for actual cuts," Will said, although he didn't really mind. He took all of the files out of the drawer and placed them into a box.

"Hey, this bandaid looks cool on me," Nico said playfully. He was now swinging his legs out in front of him, admiring the bandaid on his perfectly fine knee.

"Dork." Will closed the empty file drawer and moved onto the desk drawers. The first drawer was filled mostly with scraps of paper and loose bandages. He put all the bandages in the jar and set the scrap paper aside to be sorted through.

Nico grabbed Will's hands and pulled him to the other side of the desk, closer to him. Will's legs were now pressed against the edge of the desk, in between Nico's bandaged knees.

"Wanna finish this later? I'm bored," Nico said, running his thumbs against Will's knuckles. Will had to stop himself from saying yes. He needed to finish cleaning now or it would never get done.

"You could help," Will said. Nico rolled his eyes. Will chuckled and gave Nico a quick peck on the cheek before going back to work.

"Promise me we'll walk around the canoe lake when you're finished and I'll stop annoying you," Nico said.

Will smiled and opened up the bottom drawer. "Deal."

Will looked through the drawer. There wasn't as much stuff in this drawer. Some crumpled up papers and broken pencils, an unopened chapstick. Something caught his eye, and he saw that there was a manila envelope shoved at the back of the drawer. He took it out of the drawer. Inside, there was a small stack of photos. He smiled to himself, recognizing a few campers in the first photo. It looked like a discarded pile of photos forgotten by a camper a few years ago.

The next photo was of a volleyball game between the Hermes and Apollo cabin. He saw a much younger version of himself cheering on his siblings. His eye caught on a very determined Luke Castellan, his scar giving him a vaguely creepy, glowering look. Will remembered his first summer at Camp Half-Blood well, everyone was excited when Luke got his quest, although much less so after he came back with his face sliced open. This must have been a few years after that, enough time for Luke's scar to be fully healed. Will guessed that he was about ten years old in this photo.

Will leaned against the desk, flipping through the photos; fondly looking at the memories of this camper. Surely it was one of his older siblings. Some of the campers he didn't recognize, although he knew most of them. He'd been at camp for half of his life, longer than most campers.

The last photo caught him by surprise. Michael Yew was holding the camera up, taking a selfie of himself and Lee Fletcher. Lee was grinning and flipping off the camera. He flipped over the photo to find a quick note scrawled on the back in sharpie.

_Lee,_

_I chose my favorites, Chiron wouldn't let me print them all._

_Thanks for the camera,_

_\- Michael_

Will ran his fingers along his late brother's messy handwriting. He didn't remember Michael having a camera or any of these photos being taken. Michael must not have taken many photos during the titan war.

He felt a surge of emotion, although he couldn't place exactly what he was feeling. Sadness, melancholy, longing? He remembered the day he became head counselor, the day Michael went missing. He remembered wondering for weeks after the war if Michael would show up at camp, beaten and bruised but still alive. He gave up hope after a while, it was childish thinking anyways. His body was probably somewhere at the bottom of the East River. At least with Lee, they'd been able to give him a proper burial shroud. Will remembered burning Michael's shroud with all of the other campers whose bodies were never recovered. Seeing his two brothers smiling at the camera was like a sucker punch to the gut.

"Hey, are you okay?" Will was jolted back to reality. Nico was looking at Will from his perch on the desk, his face scrunched up in concern.

"Yeah, it's nothing. Just something I found. Some photos." He paused for a moment, mulling over his thoughts. "Actually, it's not nothing."

He showed Nico the photo. Nico seemed to understand what Will was thinking.

"That's Lee and Michael, right?" Nico knew their names—he'd been there for the funerals. Will nodded his head.

"Do you ever think that you're not qualified for something? Like, even if you're the most qualified to do it, you still have that second thought in the back of your mind that you're bullshitting everyone around you?" Will glanced up at Nico.

"Not exactly, but I know what you mean," Nico said.

"Well, that's how I felt after Michael died. I was just a thirteen-year-old kid, I didn't know what I was doing. I had just lost a brother."

Nico didn't say anything in response. Instead, he held out his hand. Will grabbed Nico's hand and felt a reassuring squeeze.

Nico was not a cheerful person, but he smiled. It was a sort of sad and hopeful, lingering smile; one that could build cities and scale mountains, one that set a spark aflame inside Will's chest every time he saw it.

Will threw his arms around Nico and pulled him into a hug.

Will couldn't tell how long they stayed like that, arms wrapped around each other, his neck buried into Nico's.

"Thank you," Will said. "I needed that."

"Of course." Nico squeezed his hand and smiled at Will. "Now C'mon, I'm pretty sure someone promised me a walk around the canoe lake."

"Yeah, just one sec," Will said. He grabbed the last photo, the one with Lee and Michael, and put the rest of the photos back in the drawer. He took a thumbtack and stuck the photo to the bulletin board by the door.

"Okay, I'm ready."


End file.
